Considered ahead of its time — and perhaps it
still is — this unusual drama, inspired by the French New Wave,
brought Warren Beatty and producer-director Arthur Penn together
for the first time — two years before their landmark
Bonnie and Clyde. Beatty
stars as a Detroit night club comic who incurs the wrath of The
Mob (he doesn’t know why) and flees to Chicago to start life
anew — but still living in fear. But the plot is secondary to
the look and sound of this film (a favorite of Martin Scorsese),
which boasts a score by Eddie Sauter and stunning photography by
Academy AwardŽ-winner Ghislain Cloquet (1980, Best
Cinematography, Tess). Alexandra Stewart, Hurd Hatfield,
Franchot Tone and Jeff Corey co-star in this one-of-a-kind
motion picture. Incidentally, much of it was shot in what is now
Oprah Winfrey’s studio. Newly remastered.

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per
second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 (English)

Subtitles

None

Features

Release Information:
Studio: Sony Pictures

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Edition Details:
• Trailer (3:01)

DVD Release Date: September
21st, 2010Keep Case

Chapters 10

Comments

Influenced by the French New Wave and film noirs, Arthur Penn,
already being nominated for an Oscar for The Miracle Worker,
constructs Mickey One as a tale of a man on the run, making this
his first teaming with Warren Beatty, two years before
Bonnie and Clyde. Unfortunately, the film was not
released on DVD until now, joining 99 other titles in a new
program from Sony Pictures called Screen Classics by Request.
Taking a note from Warner Archive Collection, these releases are
pressed on DVD-R discs and available exclusively through Sony
Pictures web site or at several on-line retailers (no Amazon
listings yet).

NOTE: "Mickey
One" was shot by Ghislain Cloquet, who did "Au
hasard Balthazar" the following year. He shot several
Bresson films, and many other notable works. (Thanks Doug!)

The single-layered progressive anamorphic
transfer is excellent, with no visible damage on the print and
no pixelization or other strong defects. The film is slightly letterboxed on the top and
the bottom to keep aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The English mono
soundtrack is fine, but like Warner Archive discs, there are
no subtitles available. The only extra is a 3-minute trailer for
the film. The menu design is basic and the film is divided to 10
chapters, each one every ten minutes. With the recent passing of
Arthur Penn, this release marked the last theatrical film he
directed to be released on DVD. The excellent transfer provided
by Sony Pictures marks this disc as recommended, if the price
is right.